Windsor Man Pleads Guilty To Weapons Charges

Windsor man gets 5 years probation after police say he asked woman he met online to bring him illegal rifles

ENFIELD — A 20-year old Windsor man pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to carry a dangerous weapon and will serve five years of probation after prosecutors charged that he persuaded a woman he met online to bring him a pair of Bushmaster AR-15 semi-automatic rifles from Arkansas.

Mason Backus, 20, of Windsor, accepted the plea agreement in Enfield Superior Court Thursday. He will serve five years of probation on the charges and pay a $7,000 fine. Initially, Backus faced 10 felony weapons charges.

According to the warrant for Backus' arrest, on Jan. 21, 2014, he called police and told them his girlfriend had just arrived from Arkansas and was in his house with a handgun threatening to shoot him or herself. Backus told police he had taken the clip from the gun and was waiting for them outside.

When police arrived at Backus' White Rock Drive residence, they found two women outside, Backus' mother and Kristen Ross, who told police that she was Backus' girlfriend and that she had just driven from Arkansas.

Police checked both women and did not find a gun.

Ross told police that Backus had a handgun and that he "had been walking around the house the entire day putting the handgun to his head, which was not loaded, and pulling the trigger."

Ross also told police that Backus said he wanted to shoot his mother when she got home and then kill himself, that he had explosives in the house and that he believed he was possessed by a demon.

Police searched the house and found no guns or explosives. They then searched the truck in which Ross had arrived and found two AR-15 rifles and a black 9-mm handgun, police said. Two of the guns had no magazines in them and the third one contained a magazine without ammunition in it, police said.

Ross told police that Backus asked her to buy the guns for him in Arkansas and bring them to him "because you can't buy them in Connecticut."

Officers found Backus walking several blocks away with a clip for a 9-mm handgun in his possession.

Ross told police that she and Backus had met online, were in love and planned to get married. She is scheduled to appear in court on similar weapon charges on March 12.